The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon has announced that President Donald Trump’s administration has delivered military equipment to the Hezbollah-linked Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), namely Bradley Fighting Vehicles. “It will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with new capabilities to protect Lebanon, to protect its borders, and to fight terrorists,” declared Elizabeth Richard, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, referring to the U.S.-supplied military vehicles. “Over the next several months, the Army will undergo intensive training on how to operate and maintain this new, very sophisticated combat system.” “I am pleased to once again demonstrate our long-term commitment to Lebanon, and our support...

Over at Tesla, Google, and Uber — and now the contagion has reached Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and beyond — the smartest guys in the room are talking autonomous vehicles. Over at every hedge fund, venture-capital and wealth-management shop in the universe, the smartest guys in the room are throwing money at the concept. Why? Because it’s the Next Big Thing, that’s why. Billions of dollars are in play. Which is why we are seeing an avalanche of faux-news stories about the coming era of driverless cars, how they’re on the streets now, how well they are doing in testing,...

Buying and renting out single-family homes has long been the mainstay investment of small, individual investors. The big banks and hedge funds pretty much monopolize everything else. They own the stock market. They own the bond market. They own all the commercial real estate. They even own the farmland. Single-family homes were one of the last bastions of investment freedom for the little guy. But all that’s changing now. Last week a huge merger was announced between Invitation Homes (owned by private equity giant Blackstone Group) and Starwood Waypoint Homes (owned by real estate giant Starwood Capital). If the deal...

Here’s one that came my way earlier today although the report was from January: New York Fed Chief Dudley has an Idea — Homeowners Should Tap Into Equity. “New York Fed President William Dudley on Tuesday encouraged homeowners to find “prudent” ways to tap into the equity that has built up in the homes, saying the boost in consumption would be a welcome shot-in-the-arm to the economy. The shape of household finances was a hidden strength of the economy, he said. “The good news is that, while the current expansion is quite old in chronological terms, it is still relatively...

Supermarket Coop makes leap after law change allows sale of grasshoppers, crickets and mealworms for human consumption Switzerland’s second-largest supermarket chain will begin selling insect burgers for human consumption after the country’s food safety laws were revised. Coop said insect-based produce such as the flour burgers and balls of protein-rich mealworm would go on sale next week. The products, made by a Swiss start-up called Essento, will be available in a handful of Coop branches, including in Geneva, Bern and Zurich, from 21 August, according to a statement. Switzerland is the first European country to authorise the sale of insect-based...

North Korea’s success in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears able to reach the United States was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory with historical ties to Russia’s missile program, according to an expert analysis being published Monday and classified assessments by American intelligence agencies. The studies may solve the mystery of how North Korea began succeeding so suddenly after a string of fiery missile failures, some of which may have been caused by American sabotage of its supply chains and cyberattacks on its launches. After those failures, the North changed...

One example that reveals Suleiman’s problematic views regarding Jews and Judaism is a lecture he gave in January 2016 on the following topic: “Masjid Al-Aqsa: The occupied sanctuary.” The advertisement for the event noted that Suleiman’s “passion for this topic comes naturally” because he is “the son of Palestinian parents.” In a promotional clip, Suleiman himself emphasized that it was important to “bring the religious element back to the discussion of the occupied sanctuary;” he denounced the “brutal occupation” of Al-Aqsa, claiming that “religious rights” of Muslims were being “taken away.” He illustrated this alleged denial of Muslim “religious rights”...

Robert E. Lee has been viewed by many Americans as an unlikely hero for the past 150 years. The Virginia slaveholder felt torn at the onset of the Civil War, writing years later that, “though [I was] opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern states.” As for slavery, the other issue generally seen as the cause of the war, Lee ultimately chose his homestate of Virginia over the Union. Upon hearing word of Virginia’s formal secession, he resigned from the U.S. Army and joined the state militia, fighting for the...

Older Americans own half of the houses in the market. Many are simply refusing to sell and others have adult “kids” moving back in since they can’t afford a place to rent or buy. It is a Catch 22 and many people are looking at countries like Italy where the number of adults that live at home is enormous. Multi-generational families just don’t coincide with the “rugged American” worldview where you go out on your own and you make it with your own two hands. Of course, many house humpers had mom and dad chip in but that doesn’t make...

The 6 January 2017 document that the 98 Senators and 419 Representatives were relying upon there, «Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections», was signed by just one of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies: President Obama's Director of National Intelligence (James R. Clapper), who served at the pleasure of the then-President (Obama). The portion of it titled «Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election» was additionally signed by the NSA, FBI and CIA. The entire document was built upon an earlier document, dated 7 October 2016 and issued in anticipation of Hillary Clinton’s becoming the next...

Paul Beston joins Steven Malanga to talk about the history of the American high school and making high-quality career training central in today’s high schools. This 10 Blocks episode is the second based on City Journal’s special issue, The Shape of Work to Come. In 1910, less than 20 percent of America’s 15-to-18-year-olds were enrolled in high school. By 1940, that figure had reached nearly 75 percent. The phenomenon became known as the American high school movement, and the impetus for it came from local communities, not from federal, or even state, government. Today, however, high school diplomas poorly prepare...

Like other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Mr. Zuckerberg believes that thousands of jobs are going to be swept away by new technologies, such as driverless cars. In such a world, he says, we need to invent a new social contract. Basic income could be part of the answer. Some argue that Alaska is a special case as it has just distributed the fruits of an oil bonanza. But it may be possible to find other sources of revenue to fund similar schemes elsewhere. Some have suggested a land value tax. Others have argued for a financial transactions tax. But there is...

<p>1.Going back twenty years or more, the framework for hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of financial transactions has been fictional.</p>
<p>2.We are zooming toward a legal and economic clusterfuck of galactic proportions – the "uncertain future" Bloomberg humorously referenced.</p>

Is there a better antiwar pop song than “Galveston,” which Jimmy Webb wrote and Glen Campbell sang in the Vietnam-hued year of 1969? Therein, a young soldier daydreams of his Texas home by the Gulf and the girl he left behind. He describes the things he misses—“seawaves crashing,” “seabirds flying in the sun”—and confesses, “I am so afraid of dying” without seeing girl or Galveston again. There is not a single note of preachiness or abstraction in the song. Yet in elevating home over foreign crusades, “Galveston” borders on sedition. It really ought to be banned under the Patriot Act....

Ri, a high-profile North Korean defector, spent years working for what is essentially a slush fund for one of the most notorious regimes on the planet, Kim Jong Un and his compatriots. Office 39 Ri said he worked for decades in what's known as "Office 39." The office is in charge of bringing in hard currency for the regime. Ri calls it a "slush fund for the leader and the leadership." Ri told CNN "Office 39" is not engaged in illicit activities, but the US Treasury Department says otherwise. The US government accused the office of engaging in "illicit economic...

Businessman and Blackwater founder Erik Prince has been shopping around Washington a detailed proposal for replacing thousands of American soldiers in Afghanistan with contractors from foreign countries led by a “viceroy” with almost unfettered power over U.S. military and diplomatic policy. Prince has been public about the broad outlines of his plan, which is reportedly supported by some senior White House officials, including chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, but many crucial details have not been brought into public view, until now. Prince has laid out his proposal in a PowerPoint presentation to government officials, lawmakers and congressional officials. Entitled “A...

She smuggled out the children in suitcases, ambulances, coffins, sewer pipes, rucksacks and, on one occasion, even a tool box. Those old enough to ask knew their saviour only by her codename "Jolanta". But she kept hidden a meticulous record of all their real names and new identities - created to protect the Jewish youngsters from the pursuing Nazis - so they might later be re-united with their families. By any measure, Irena Sendler was one of the most remarkable and noble figures to have emerged from the horrors of World War II. But, until recently, her extraordinary compassion and...